Sketching in the Vendee

Water meadow in the Vendee June 2016 Watercolour sketch insitu

I enjoyed a brilliant afternoon sketching in the landscape with my granddaughter Maisy. What a lucky way for an old man to utilise time!  I love the way wild flowers seed in drifts amongst the grasses. No wonder so many of the Impressionists were living and working in this part of France. Everywhere you look you can see beauty. Perhaps if I live for one hundred years I might be able to capture its essence?

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The Lake June 2016 Graphite stick sketch insitu.

Took me awhile to get used to sketching in pencil again, strange considering my 40 years practice as an architect. I guess the use of computer graphics in my profession over the latter years took its toll! An architect should never be without his 6B pencil. Anyways, my second sketch of the Boat House is an improvement on my first sketch of the Lake. Well at least I think so!

The  Boathouse by the Lake  June 2016 Graphite stick sketch insitu.

 

 

 

Ratty's Little Song

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!

Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight
Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim--
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!
WE like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!

High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call--
WE are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!

Credits: Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame